


"Explain This"

by Cup_aTea



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, First Meetings, M/M, Mandatory Fun Day, Nakedness, Steve worries too much, hangovers, what happens in vegas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 10:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20007154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cup_aTea/pseuds/Cup_aTea
Summary: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.Or at least it’s supposed to.  Which is why Bucky is so confused to find himself in Malibu, hungover, with a beautiful naked man passed out several feet away.





	"Explain This"

**Author's Note:**

> For [this](https://mandatoryfunday.tumblr.com/post/186466278309/okay-winterhawklings-this-week-lets-think-what#notes) Mandatory Fun Day prompt.
> 
> I wrote a lot of this on my phone at work, so I apologize for any missed typos/errors. Autocorrect is a birch.

Bucky groaned as something prodded insistently at his side. His head felt like death, his mouth tasted like death, and he didn’t even want to think about his stomach. 

“Go’way,” he said before curling tighter into the soft thing his arms were wrapped around. 

The prodding got more insistent. 

“Wake up, Bucky.”

Ugh. That was Steve. That was Steve’s disappointed voice. Bucky blearily lifted his head

“Explain this,” Steve said sternly. 

Bucky looked around. He appeared to be outside at Stark’s Malibu estate, lying—yep, completely naked—on the concrete. He was cuddled up to a purple teddy bear that was almost as big as he was. Beyond, there were bottles strewn across the ground. At the edge of the terrace where the line of the pavement met the skyline was an unmoving body.

“Uh....” said Bucky

“Uh is not good enough. You broke into my boyfriend’s house in the middle of the night when you were supposed to be at conference in Vegas.”

Vegas sounded familiar. There was a conference about prosthetics and robotics he’d been looking forward to attending for months. He had a vague memory of getting a nametag and watching someone stand on a stage. But mostly his head was spinning with memories of music and lights and warm solid arms wrapped around him. 

“But we can’t be at Tony’s place. Malibu is like... really far from Vegas,” Bucky said, his brain giving up at imagining the distance. 

“Yeah. 310 miles to be exact,” and fuck, Steve still sounded angry. 

“M’sorry. Tell Stark I’m sorry,” Bucky said. He propped himself up to a sitting position and swallowed hard as his stomach churned. 

“Oh, Tony thinks it’s all hilarious. But that doesn’t make it okay, Bucky.”

“Is that guy still alive?” Bucky said, realizing the guy at the edge of the terrace hadn’t moved. 

“Oh yeah. He was snoring earlier,” said Steve. 

Bucky’s brain churned for a minute before he suddenly blurted out, “Holy shit, are we married?” 

“I have no idea,” Steve said. “Neither of you are wearing rings, but that’s not saying much.”

Bucky dragged himself up and made him walk over to the stranger. Along the way he saw other evidence of the past night’s (day’s?) hedonism. Clothes were strewn along the ground; there was sash lying on the concrete that said ‘Prettiest Princess’ in magenta letters; and there was a half smashed cake on a low table next to the pool. 

The stranger was lying sprawled on the bare concrete and he was as naked as Bucky, with the exception of a towel that had fallen over his hip and just barely covered his groin. Bucky was a little in awe. The guy was tanned all over, though he had tan lines on his arms and across his stomach, and he was all muscle. His sandy blond hair almost matched his skin. He was lying precariously close to the scenic overlook, but looked completely peaceful. Steve was right: there was no wedding ring, but Bucky was suddenly certain that drunk him wouldn’t have said no if this guy had popped the question. 

“I swear to god Steve, I would never in my right mind get married before you and Tony,” Bucky said. 

“You honestly think that’s what I’m upset about?” Steve said. His eyes were suspiciously wet looking. “Bucky, you could’ve—“

“Hey Bucky bear!” 

Bucky cringed as Tony’s voice rang out. 

“How you feeling? I brought some hangover helpers, if any strike your fancy.” Tony set a tray down loudly on the glass table beside the destroyed cake. “We’ve got some orange juice, a little hair of the dog, something with tomato and lime and a fresh egg yolk.”

Bucky swallowed as his stomach threatened to revolt again. 

“Tony,” Steve said. 

“Or some gatorade, for Mother Steven's sensibilities,” Tony said. 

“Gatorade,” Bucky said. 

It actually felt good in his mouth when he made himself try it, so he took a second sip. 

“You had quite a night,” Tony said, grinning widely. “Almost put my bachelor days to shame from what I saw.”

“You saw?” Bucky said appalled. 

“On the security footage, sure,” said Tony. 

“Oh god, kill me now,” Bucky said. 

Tony snickered. “JARVIS, call up the highlights.”

Bucky squinted at the projection that came up on the windows. First he saw an image of himself and the stranger stumbling out of the car. They fought to drag the purple teddy bear out after them. The stranger ducked back in and emerged with a cake box and a bag. 

Next, JARVIS played a clip of the two of them dancing, if you could call it that. The guy was flinging himself around in time with some kind of beat and Bucky saw that he was wearing the sash. In the next clip both of them were pulling their clothes off before drunkenly stumbling down the path to the beach.

“I believe there was skinny dipping,” Tony said gleefully. 

“Oh god,” Bucky muttered. 

“Just wait, it gets better,” Tony said. 

The image jumped to both of them standing near the edge of the stone terrace. Bucky’s beautiful stranger started doing a series flips along the edge before performing a graceful landing. Bucky could see them talking and then the stranger leaned back like he was falling. Bucky could see from the video that he’d just been acting, but apparently drunk Bucky thought it had been real. In the video, he lunged forward and almost sent both of them over the edge before the stranger was able to right them. 

“Holy shit,” said Bucky. “We almost died.”

“Probably not,” Tony said, waving a hand. “There’s a hill on the other side of the ledge. It’s pretty steep and it’s full of rocks, but I’d say the odds are on your side.”

Bucky felt a little green around the gills thinking about and Steve looked the same. 

Bucky heard a groan near his feet and turned to look. The stranger was blinking against the bright sun, but when his eyes focused on Bucky he smiled. 

“Hello gorgeous,” the guy said. 

Tony snickered in the background, but Bucky couldn’t look away from the man’s hazel eyes. 

“Hey,” he said. 

“Do I know you? I feel like I should know you,” the guy said, sitting up. “I’m Clint.”

“Bucky.”

“Bucky,” Clint repeated, smiling wider. 

“How are you not hung over?” Bucky said. 

“Oh, I definitely am. I’m just used to it. I’ll take some coffee if you have it though.”

“I think we can find you some,” Tony said.

“Maybe we can go inside and find everybody some clothes,” Steve said.

Clint stood up, grabbing the towel and deftly wrapping it around his hips. 

“I don’t know, I’m kind of enjoying the view,” he said. His smile was like sunshine and Bucky’s stomach fluttered in a whole new way.

“Sir, I hate to interrupt, but there is a you have a Natasha Romanoff requesting entry. She claims to be a friend of our guest and has considerable photographic evidence.”

“Sound familiar?” Tony asked Clint.

“Yeah, she’s my best friend.”

“Let her in, J. We’ll meet her in the living room and grab some coffee along the way,” Tony said.

As they passed through the kitchen, Bucky traded his gatorade for a cup of coffee. It was hard to look away from Clint as he swallowed one cup in three gulps and then poured himself a second one. They walked out to the living room and Bucky caught Steve giving him a worried look. But Bucky was almost immediately distracted by the fact that there was a stranger standing in living room and he was still completely naked.

“You must be Hot Guy,” she said, looking him up and down.

“Uh…” Bucky said.

He covered his junk with the hand that wasn’t holding the coffee cup. Fortunately the red head was already ignoring him and focused on Clint.

“I brought you some clothes,” she said throwing a bundle of fabric at Clint. “You’re welcome.”

“Let me grab you something Buck,” Steve said. 

He disappeared down a hallway and came back a minute later. Bucky gratefully pulled on the shorts and hoodie that Steve passed him. Feeling more comfortable but still unsettled Bucky sat down on the couch. Clint, now clothed, sat down next to him and Natasha settled on Clint’s other side. Tony played a good host, getting Natasha a drink. 

“What I want to know,” Tony said as he brought Natasha her iced tea, “is how you boys got those bottles out there. You boys had some expensive drinks.”

“I won a lot of money,” Clint said. He sounded pretty pleased with himself. 

“Define a lot,” Tony said. 

“Half a million dollars.”

“Not bad,” said Tony. “How’d you manage that?”

“I got lucky I guess,” Clint said shrugging and looking at Natasha.

She ruffled his hair.

“I wanted to celebrate and then I ran into you,” Clint said. He looked at Bucky this time, and his smile was sweet and a little shy.

“I don’t even understand how we met,” Bucky said. “I was at a conference.”

“Yeah. It was at the same hotel I was staying at. You were at the bar and you seemed upset, and well, I bought you a nice drink to cheer you up.”

Bucky frowned, trying to remember how he had ended up at the hotel bar.

“You said some guy at the conference was being a dick. Called you out for the kind of arm you had,” Clint supplied.

“Hammer…” Bucky said. That did ring a bell. There had been an afternoon presentation that Justin Hammer had given. He had spotted Bucky in the crowd and decided to make an example of him for why Hammer tech was better than Stark Industries’. Bucky had left early, too disgusted to stick around.

“But how did we end up here?” Bucky asked.

“I got a text from Kate around five that you’d met a hot guy at the bar and were well on your way to getting plastered,” Natasha told Clint. “I think from there you two just did whatever sounded fun.”

“I remember we were talking about the ocean,” Clint said. “I haven’t seen the ocean since I was a kid. You said you had a friend with a house by the water.”

“Aw, Buckaroo, I'm honored that you consider my place a safe refuge when you’re drunk,” Tony said, hand over his heart.

“I don’t know if I’d call this a house, though,” Clint said, looking around. “It’s more like a mansion. The view is incredible though.” 

“I should hope so,” said Natasha, “because your bank account says you paid ten thousand dollars for someone to drive you here.”

“You know,” Tony said, pouring himself a coffee, “five hundred grand isn’t going to last you very long if you keep going at this rate.”

“Tony! I’ve literally seen you drop thousand dollar tips,” Steve said.

“I’m a billionaire, baby, it’s a matter of scale,” Tony said, giving Steve a peck on the cheek. 

“Anyway,” Tony said, turning back to Clint. “I could give you some tips if you want on what to do with it, how to invest it.”

“Who are you again?” Clint said, squinting at him.

“He’s Tony Stark,” Natasha said drolly. “Of Stark Industries? Leading innovative company in robotics and clean energy?”

“Oh!” said Clint, realization lighting his face. “The Tony Stark who wore the mesh shirt on the red carpet!”

Bucky laughed and Natasha rolled her eyes.

“See baby, I told you my fashion choices make an impact on the world,” Tony said, patting Steve’s thigh.

Watching them be cute together, Bucky suddenly remembered his other worry.

“We didn’t get married, did we? No offense, but I am not ready for that. And I can’t get married before Stevie over here.”

“No,” Natasha said.

“No. Definitely not. I would not get married without Natasha being there, and even drunk me knows that sudden marriage proposals are off-limits,” said Clint. “I’ve already made that mistake once. Not that marrying you would be a mistake, you seem really great and I would totally marry you. Um…”

“Let’s get to know each other first,” Bucky said, fighting back a smile.

“Yeah?” The hopefulness in Clint’s eyes made Bucky’s heart beat faster.

“Yeah,” he said. “It seems like there’s something here. You let me drag you out to Cali after all.”

“Well, you let me buy you all those drinks and dance real close,” Clint said.

Bucky dimly realized that he and Clint had leaned their heads in close. But mostly, he was stuck on how many colors there were in Clint’s eyes and how pink his bottom lip was where it was sticking out just so.

Somebody cleared their throat, and Bucky was jolted out of the moment. 

“Maybe we should give them a minute,” Natasha said, sounding amused.

“Would you like a tour of the house?” 

“Sure,” Natasha said, rising gracefully from the couch.

Tony led the way out of the room and Natasha and Steve followed. Steve gave a concerned glance over his shoulder, but Bucky ignored him. 

“So, I’m kind of a disaster,” Clint said, looking a little awkward now that they were alone.

“You seem like you know how to have fun,” Bucky said with a shrug. “I get kind of serious sometimes.”

“You seem like a smart guy with a lot going on his brain,” Clint said. 

He reached out and traced Bucky’s jawline. Bucky leaned into it, letting his eyes close.

“I live in Iowa,” Clint said, apropos of nothing.

Bucky barked out a laugh. “What are you doing here?” he said, opening his eyes again.

“I’m on vacation. I live in an old house that my brother inherited when our parents died, and I inherited from him when he went to jail. Natasha asked if I wanted a break, and so here I am.”

“I live part time in New York and part time here because of work, but I’m really a Brooklyn boy at heart.”

“Hearing aids,” Clint said. He was leaning in close again, and Bucky was stuck on the colors in his eyes.

“Prosthetic arm,” he said.

“I’m late for everything, and I’m really messy.”

“I’m grumpy when it’s too cold and grumpy when it’s balls hot, and I hate getting up in the morning,” Bucky said. 

Clint’s lips were so close; Bucky could feel them move when he spoke.

“I sing in the shower,” Clint murmured. “Off-key.”

“I’m kind of a food snob.” Bucky stopped resisting and bit down gently on Clint’s plump lower lip.

“Mmm.” Clint paused for breath. “I cry sometimes during sex.” 

“Sometimes I make people scream,” Bucky said, trailing kisses on the underside of Clint’s jaw.

“Oh?” Clint shuddered under Bucky’s touch.

“Only in a good way,” Bucky promised.

Clint was quiet in his arms for a moment before speaking up again.

“I fall too fast,” he said.

Bucky pulled back a little.

“That’s okay. Stevie’ll tell you I fall too hard,” he said.

“We live in different parts of the country,” Clint said. 

His serious expression put a line between his eyebrows. Bucky smoothed a thumb over it.

“We’re on vacation, right? Let’s just enjoy it and see what happens.”

Bucky paused as he leant in to kiss Clint some more. 

“They have high speed internet in Iowa, right?”

“Yeah, I think so,” said Clint.

“See,” Bucky said. “It could work.”

And then he kissed Clint again.


End file.
